Alexandre Dumas the Black-Frenchman: France Attempt to Steal Black History Creates Row

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Rasta Livewire is picking news feed that French film makers and their financiers are attempting to credit the so-called white tribes as being the author of that nation’s greatest great novels such as, The Three Musketeers and The Count Of Monte Christo.

These works were well known to have been written by a black man, Alexandre Dumas, son of Haitian born General, Thomas Dumas. He is known as one of the fathers of modern French literature and modern French language.

Although France has produced many great writers, none has been as widely read as Alexandre Dumas. His stories have been translated into almost a hundred languages, and have inspired more than 200 motion pictures.

Eventhough very successful in French higher society, Alexandre Dumas (and his father General Thomas Dumas) suffered immensely on the account of his race and the racism of the average so-called white Europeans.

In 1843 he wrote a short novel, Georges, that addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism. All his life he referred to himself as anegro.

He famously remarked to a so-called white man who insulted him about his mixed-race background with the following words: “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.”

Although his books were revered by his contemporaries, he was often mocked for his colour. “In caricatures or in sketches he was always presented with big lips, with Afro hair, as a sort of monster.”

Even at death, he was not honoured by the society which he did so much to enlighten and promote. He was buried in his home town rather than in the national mausoleum where luminaries less than him had been buried. And while his book was widely read and celebrated, his remains was not accorded the respect dued to it.

All that changed that on 30 November 2002, when under the orders of the French President, Jacques Chirac, Alexandre Dumas’ body was exhumed, and in a televised ceremony with new coffin all draped in national colours; was transported in a solemn procession to the Panthéon of Paris, the great mausoleum where French luminaries are interred.

President Chirac acknowledged the racism that had existed in the treatment of the remaining physical legacy of Alexandre Dumas; but also emphasized that such a wrong had now been righted, with Alexandre Dumas enshrined alongside fellow authors Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.

Why would France now seek to re-dramatize the life of Alexandre Dumas as a so-called white man?

Below is the one of the several reports on the issue floating on the web:

Dumas film with white actor Depardieu sparks race row

By Emma Jane Kirby
BBC News, Paris

French actor Gerard Depardieu (file image)
Gerard Depardieu’s natural skin tone was not dark enough

A film about 19th Century French author Alexandre Dumas has sparked a row after a white actor was chosen to portray the novelist, who was of African origin.

The celebrated but fair-skinned screen star, Gerard Depardieu, had to darken his skin and wear curly wig to play the part in L’Autre Dumas.

Critics argue the French movie industry has deliberately undermined the 19th Century novelist’s ethnicity.

They say a mixed race actor should have been chosen to play the national hero.

…..The film’s directors insist they simply chose an actor who could match Dumas’s vibrancy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8523212.stm


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16 thoughts on “Alexandre Dumas the Black-Frenchman: France Attempt to Steal Black History Creates Row”

  1. J. Edgar Hoover – who covered up his black ancestry.

    A new book entitled Secrets Uncovered, J Edgar Hoover – Passing For White? has been published revealing that J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI for most of its early history from 1924 until his death in 1972, had black ancestors. The author, Millie McGhee is an African-American who says she was told as a little girl in McComb, Mississippi, USA, of her familles links with Hoover, described by the author Edward Spannaus, his article The Mysterious Origins of J. Edgar Hoover as “one of the most virulent racists to hold a top government position” in the USA in the 20th century.

    She says that her grandfather told of her of a “very powerful” man in Washington who was related to the family but did not want the links to be known and passed himself off as white. She reveals in her book that this man was Hoover, who was born in 1895, was apparently anxious that no one should know of his black origins.
    According to McGhee, her relatives were warned of “dire consequences” if they spoke publicly of his background. She said that as a little girl she believed that they would be killed if they mentioned the secret.

    “Is this man so ashamed of his race that he would spend his whole life passing for white? . . . How has our race offended him ?”

  2. He is 3/4 white and he looks white why do you call him a black man? I don’t think he considered himself black nor did most French people of his time consider him black.

  3. If he had commited a crime, they would consider him a light skinned black French man, but because he did something great, the French consider himself a white Frenchman. He himself said he was Negro, and the people of his time made fun of his skin color and hair texture. That’s the way of the world Emil…can’t do anything about it.

    1. Karl marx’s son in law, paul lafargue, one of the most
      Prominent radical socialists in france and leader of the
      French socialist had a similar background, having a grandmother who was a slave in haiti.
      Everybody knew it, but the establishment never
      really used his background to attack him.
      It was not an important topic.

  4. Hello. Since we’re on the subject, below is an Article I read today (8/25/10) on Huffington Post, a very popular alternative news site regarding J. Edgar Hoover’s background. The hidden information is coming in at lightning speed. Enjoy!

    Hitler Jewish? DNA Tests Show Dictator May Have ‘Had Jewish And African Roots’
    First Posted: 08-25-10 02:58 AM | Updated: 08-25-10 03:32 AM

    DNA tests suggest Hitler may have had Jewish and African ancestry.
    The story of Adolf Hitler could be the most twisted in all of history. Add one more twist.
    Responsible for the slaughter of millions of Jews and a hero only to self-avowed racists, DNA tests apparently show that the Nazi dictator may have had Jewish and African ancestry.
    Several media outlets have reported on results published last week in Knack, a magazine in Belgium.
    The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph says that saliva samples were collected from 39 Hitler relatives:
    A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews …

    Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.
    Many victims of Hitler’s Holocaust, like Anne Frank, were Ashkenazi.
    Another British paper, The Sun, identified more of the people involved and how two of the samples were obtained:
    A journalist working for a magazine in Brussels managed to get hold of a sample from Alexander Stuart-Houston, 61, a grand-nephew of Hitler living in America, after picking up a serviette he had dropped.

    Reporter Jean-Paul Mulders used the services of historian Marc Vermeeren to find Hitler’s Austrian cousin, a farmer called Norbert H, and 39 other distant relatives of the Fuehrer.
    Norbert H apparently gave a saliva sample willingly.
    Story continues below
    “Hitler would not have been happy,” said Professor Ronny Decorte in a Google translation of the Knack’s web-version of the story. Decorte, a genetics expert from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (a Flemish research university), says that Hitler apparently wasn’t “Aryan” — what the Nazi would have considered “pure.” But the research doesn’t seem to be conclusive with respect to which groups Hitler may have descended from.
    Hitler’s preoccupation with ancestry — including his own — has caused speculation for many years. New York Daily News points out that this research could validate a historic myth:
    Hitler’s heritage has been called into question before, with some suggesting his grandfather was Jewish. But this is the first claim with any scientific data to support it.

    Similar reports have been made against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust occurred and regularly bashes Israel.
    Knack says that Russia possesses artifacts from Hitler that would contain his DNA, and that researchers could end the speculation if they were allowed to test those items.
    Get HuffPost World On Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz! Know something we don’t? E-mail us at world@huffingtonpost.com
    Around the Web:
    Hitler’s Jewish and Berber DNA › 2.0: The Blogmocracy
    DNA tests reveal Hitler’s Jewish and African roots – Haaretz Daily …
    Hitler Was Jewish, DNA Test Reveals – Also, partly African
    ‘Hitler was descended from Jews and Africans’ DNA tests reveal …
    Adolf Hitler had Jewish, African ancestors, show DNA tests …
    DNA study: Hitler had Jewish roots – Israel News, Ynetnews
    Hitler DNA Tests Show He Likely Had Jewish, African Roots, Daily …
    Newsvine – DNA tests reveal Hitler’s Jewish and African roots
    Hitler’s ‘black & Jewish DNA’ | The Sun |News

    1. The articles are a bit disingenuous, when checking unbiased genetic sources – Haplogroup E1b1b1 is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in
      High Atlas (Morocco) + 80% Mzab (Algeria) + 80% Somalia + 80% Darfur (Sudan) + 60% … and so on down the line (see thegeneticatlas.com/E1b1b1_Y-DNA.htm) attributing “Jewish” to these high percentages when it occurs in under 20% is not exactly painting the clearest picture. These areas are majority Muslim, I noticed Rahsheeda you have a somewhat muslim name, this may not be good news for you, though I know your objective to paint Jews as evil is a traditionally Muslim one.

    2. Hitler grew up in an area, where those specific genes are frequently found among the population.
      This was recently researched by an austrian team of geneticists. Since it is known that there once was a nubian legion stationed in todays “oberoesterreich”, they suggest that those semitic and african gene material leads back to ancient times, when austria was a roman domaine.

  5. @Emil yes he did consider himself to be a Black man and according to history in his time and even before that 1% of African made you black. so whether he was 1/4 or 1/40 black, by nature and societies standards he was a Black man.

    @Emperil you’re absolutely correct, if he had been a troublemaker the French would have denied that he was even 3/4 white. It would’ve been twisted so that he wasn’t associated with them. Much like they are trying to do with the fact that he is black because he did something great.

    1. You never were black in europe when
      you had a black grandfather or grandmother.
      A large part of the british royality goes back to
      the african gannibal (pushkines grandather)
      For example the mountbattons..

      This is only an american or ex south african interpretation
      But since dumas was european, he has nothing to do with this concept of the “one drop rule”

    2. @Brittany:
      Paul lafargue was a big troublemaker,but he was never questioned to be white, alltough it was widely known that he had african roots. And he was the undisputed leader of french socialism.

  6. Apparently his grandmother was a black slave from Haiti. Now in my mind, if one has black in your heritage you can claim that just as you could being white. But this is no pure delineation. How ‘pure’ someone is can be a difficult topic. Everyone is an individual and a summation of some variety of backgrounds.

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